


Nightmares

by pewpewdragons (Nyoona)



Series: Pergamon Guard [6]
Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 18:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13370904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyoona/pseuds/pewpewdragons
Summary: Two short stories I wrote, where Eudoxia and Orestes both have a nightmare about each other. These would take place somewhere after the time of the 5th chapter of Cracks on the Masks, maybe before the next one. Probably. It's vague, I know :P





	1. Eudoxia's Nightmare

_She was lying down in the middle of the training field. The familiar training field. Except the sky was— green? The colour of her home skies. How could that be? The Keep was at the Tangled Wood, not at the Windswept Plateau. It had never been there, only in Shadowbinder’s perpetual darkness since the clan left the Starfall Isles where the skies were pink and orange, like eternal dusk._

_Eudoxia_ _turned her head to look around and saw that Orestes was also there, lying down next to her. He was speaking but she couldn’t hear what he was saying so she tried moving closer. But still she could hear nothing. She opened her mouth to tell him to speak up but nothing came out. Her voice wasn’t there. Feeling panic rising up from her chest she reached out towards him. The moment her hand touched his shoulder all the sounds came back to the world. There was wind, harsh wind, and distant flapping of flags, and somewhere a bird was screeching like it’s life was threatened by something._

_And Orestes was saying, “—and that’s why I need to go. I’m leaving immediately. Because I can’t help it, I really do love you. But you hate me, don’t you? My confession isn’t something you want to hear.”_

_“No!” She screamed with her new-found voice. “I want to hear it! I really do! Please do not leave me, please—”_

_“It’s too late now, isn’t it,” Orestes said, turning to look at her. His face was covered with a mask, a hideous thing with wide grin painted on it. Had it been on his face all this time? How had she not noticed it? It was so obvious._

_“No, please. Stay. We can talk about this. I just need some time. I just—”_

_“Too late. Too late. Too late,” he kept repeating as his form started to slowly dissolve to the sand on the ground, turning it from off-white to seafoam and violet with his bleeding colours. Eudoxia tried to wrap her arms around him and keep him there but it didn’t help. The Tundra continued to disappear and there was nothing she could do—_

Eudoxia woke up in cold sweat, hands still trying to grasp at something but finding only air. It took some time before she fully realized where she was and for the familiar surroundings of her office to finally come to focus. She was lying on the pillows at the sitting area and a book she had been reading was face down next to her. She quickly reached to pick it up and inspect the pages for any damage the fall might have caused while slowly realizing that she must have fallen asleep while reading it.

 _So it was just a bad dream, nothing more,_  she thought.  _Just a nightmare, not real._  So why was she still feeling scared? And her heart wasn’t calming down at all. Why did she feel like crying? And most of all why did she feel an intense need to immediately go and check that he was still here, that he hadn’t really left?

 _I want to hear it! I really do!_  Those were the words she had said in the dream. Was that true? The words had felt so right but now that she was awake she couldn’t help but wonder. Why was everything about her feelings towards Orestes so complicated?

With a sigh she closed the book and placed it aside. Getting up she decided to go and see him. But not because of the dream. She just needed a distraction. It had nothing to do with her being afraid that he wouldn’t be there. Absolutely nothing.


	2. Orestes' Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Different mood, different tense. Hope it doesn't feel to weird a change.

_His limbs are long and slender. He’s on equal eye level or higher than everyone else in the room. It’s clearly a party. He moves to take a dance step and feels his long hair brush against his back. He reaches to wipe some off of his face, noticing the that the purple locks are silky soft and styled to light waves. Inside his head he can feel the constant, comforting murmur of sensing so many people around him, assured that he can sense all of their intentions through the sphere on his forehead if he so wishes.  
_

_Feeling happy and content he continues dancing until he spots a flash of crimson across the room._

Could it be—

_Curious, he starts weaving his way through the crowd, pursuing the colour that he guessed would be paired with shining silver. There is a whole sea of glittering and sheer fabrics, feathers, and precious stones around him. All the colours of the rainbow except one. Other than the small glimpse he saw the scene is completely devoid of red._

Where did she go? _He wonders as he scans the room for the missing colour. Other dragons try to stop him and to get his attention, vaguely familiar faces both from his past and present, but he ignores them all. If Eudoxia is here then he’s not interested in anyone else._

_She seems to have disappeared into thin air and his search is getting more frantic, when suddenly she’s right there, standing with her back turned to him but unmistakable with those gleaming crimson scales and ridiculously messy silver curls._

_She’s wearing her ancient armour, plates the colour of iron and gold, and red fabric with simple decorations, so plain compared to anything else at the party. Still, even amongst the finest of fabrics and jewels, to Orestes she shines like a beacon. And then she turns around and smiles at him and suddenly they’re alone in the room, just the two of them._

_He walks up to her. He finally has confidence in himself. It has been ages and he doesn’t know how but somehow he is no longer a monster. He has his beauty back and there are no obstacles left on his way. He can charm her now. He can make her love him. He feels that everything is possible as he grabs her by the waist and pulls her against him._

_“Hello beautiful,” he boldly greets her._

_“Hello to you too, gorgeous,” she replies in kind, looking up at him with a flirtatious smile._

_“You’re so short like this,” he lets out an amused chuckle at their changed height difference as he observes her features from above._

_“Like what?” She asks, raising a brow._

_“Nothing.” It isn’t something to think about at this perfect moment anyway._

_“How about you—,” she slowly and deliberately slides her hand up his chest and on his shoulder, “—stop the weird talk and dance with me.” She’s not wearing the heavy armour anymore, but a light tunic made of some sheer material and skin tight leather pants, open on the sides, showing her whole physique to admiring eyes. He’s wearing something very similar himself._

_“I’d love to dance with you,” he whispers, feeling just a bit flustered despite his rediscovered self-assurance, by her body pressed so closely against his, with only two layers of very thin fabric between them. He doesn’t remember ever feeling nervous like this before, not even when he was still in this natural form of his, so he leads her to a few quick spins around to cover his confusion before settling to a slower, swinging rhythm._

_He doesn’t need to use his sphere to sense that she wants him. The desire is written all over her face, from the way her eyes gleam to the frequency that she keeps licking her lips at. She would be his tonight, and all the other nights from now on if he had any say in the matter. Just like he would be hers._

_“What is wrong?” She suddenly asks, halting the dance and looking alarmed._

_Then a sensation that should have been excruciatingly painful as he feels the sphere on his forehead crack. But somehow it isn’t. The feeling is hard to describe but it’s not dampened pain, or even pain really. More like an echo of a memory, from when he first went through this. He doesn’t need to look but he raises a hand anyway, to feel the damage, and confirms the thicker claws and longer fur. He looks to Eudoxia and they’re now on the same eye level, making him realize he’s growing shorter. But worst of all is the pure horror on her face as she witnesses his transformation._

_“Eudoxia, please—” Orestes reaches out towards her, for help, support, comfort, assurance. He receives none._

_“Do not touch me,” she says and backs away._

_“Please, it’s still me. I’m still me inside! I haven’t changed!” He pleads with her, begs her, to no avail._

_“Get away from me you— you monster!” She screams, face filled with disgust and scorn._

_The rapidly growing fur and hair are starting to invade his field of vision, the coarse tangles of purple hanging on his face. He doesn’t need a mirror to know what he looks like, that the snarling beast with bloodshot eyes is back. It’s back and his life has been ruined again and this time it involved her and he can’t bear it so he opens his mouth, baring his large, stained fangs, and roars in pain—_

Orestes woke up sitting up, back stiff as a rod and gasping for air to keep yelling. The room seemed darker than it was supposed to be and sensation of his immediate surroundings somehow distant and faint. His senses slowly returned as he managed to calm his breathing back to normal levels, and he could feel the pillows under him and see his room in the dim light that illuminated the space when he slept

Whimpering, Orestes grabbed a pillow and curled into a ball, hugging the pillow tightly as the tears that couldn’t be stopped started to fall. The nightmare had been familiar, he’d been having almost the exact same one for over two decades now. It had been getting rarer and less upsetting in recent years, until Eudoxia happened. Before her the party had always ended on him being taunted and ridiculed by everyone. Now it was just her alone and that somehow made it infinitely worse.

Something else was new too. He had never before claimed that he was still the same person, despite the change. He wasn’t. It would have been a lie, wouldn’t it? A monster had a monster’s mind. Maybe he could pretend for a while longer, but eventually she would find out that he was just as ugly inside as outside. That day would come and he would lose her friendship. He was only fooling himself if he sometimes thought otherwise.

 _No!_  His mind rebelled.  _She has made me want to be better. I am better now!_  He would do all he could to be even better, worthy of keeping her friendship, even if he never could get her love. He would do anything to be able to stay right where he was. Filled with fresh determination he wiped his eyes and got up, checking the time. He had slept only for a few hours and it was barely noon. There was surely some work related thing he could help her with. He quickly washed his face and changed his clothes and stepped out the door. 


End file.
